Get Set for THE Adventure Writing Contest

It’s time to prepare for the Adventure Scifi and Fantasy Contest coming at the end of February!

I’ve got all the official rules and stuff for you here today, but we’ll get to that shortly.

Entries for this Short Story Contest don’t actually open until February 26th, 2018, so you’ve got time to prepare…or procrastinate. Whichever style you prefer.

If you missed my query back in November, I put out feelers to see who’d be interested in joining a writing contest using a book cover design I made as inspiration.

My simple dream for this contest goes something like this:

A bunch of talented, inspired writers take a stab at this FREE contest to win some prizes and have their short stories included in an anthology where the proceeds from sales will be donated to a charity. In this case, I’ve chosen Compassion International.

The Basics

Write a short story (1,000 – 5,000 words) using this photo as initial inspiration

Things to keep in mind:

This will basically be the book cover for the anthology.

It is ONLY a jumping point for tone/theme inspiration and doesn’t have to represent your characters or specific setting (although using this setting appropriately somewhere in the story would be a good idea if you can shake it).

Genres for the contest are Contemporary or Future: Adventure, Scifi, and/or Fantasy

Stories should contain no sex, gratuitous violence, or excessive swearing (If I can’t feel comfortable posting it to my blog, it probably won’t pass the judging, so keep this in mind and use your awesome writer skills!)

In the possible case of a tie, the overall accuracy of grammar, spelling, and punctuation will be used as the determining factors

In the 2nd round, an impartial qualified author judge (or two) will read and rate the top TEN stories based on the same criteria.

1st, 2nd, & 3rd place entries will be chosen from the top ten based on the combined score of the second and first round scores.

FINALISTS & WINNERS ANNOUNCED:

Top Ten Finalists Announced

Monday, April 9th, 2018

Subject to change depending on amount of entries (notification will be made in a post at rachaelritchey.com if this is the case)

Announced in a post at rachaelritchey.com and each entrant placing in the top 20 will receive an email notification of their position

1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Winners Announced

Monday, May 7th, 2018

Subject to change depending on amount of entries (notification will be made in a post at rachaelritchey.com if this is the case)

Announced in a post at rachaelritchey.com and each entrant placing 1, 2, or 3 will receive an email notification of their position

Winners have one year from the public announcement to claim their prizes. If a winner resides within the United States, they must agree to share their address with the contest holder to receive a print copy of the anthology book. The anthology book will be shipped to the winner once it has been published. An ebook will be provided in place of a print version if living outside the US or if requested.

All stories remain the intellectual property of their respective authors.

ONLY submit your own work.

Do not submit material that has already been published. Only submit previously unpublished work to this contest.

If chosen as up to the Top 20 Overall Finalist and your story is included in the anthology book, you will retain copyright to your story, but by entering this contest you give the contest holder permission and license to include your submitted entry story in the anthology. You will be given full credit for your work within.

If chosen as a Top 20 Finalist, if requested, you agree to make minor changes and corrections—including but not limited to spelling or grammar—to your work as prescribed by the contest holder before publication in the anthology book.

Contest open to published and unpublished writers!

Phew! That should be all the legal stuff out of the way. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me via CONTACT on the menu!

If you need a little nudge for themes of these genres, they might include (but are not limited to) Time Travel, Portals, Alien Planets, Ancient Alien Tech/Structures on Earth, Archaeological Finds, Ancient Civilizations, Race to Discovery, Secrets of the Past, Invasion, Special Abilities, Genetic Mutations…. You can even focus in on themes revolving around family, relationships…really, the sky’s the limit when you have imagination on your side.

Content Marketing Association has this FANTASTIC graphic that can help you structure any story, no matter the genre:

So yeah. That’s the gist of it. Spread the word!

Share this post across social media and let’s get everyone involved! I’m excited to support you, see your work get out there, and also support a worthy cause in the process.

Please feel free to email me or leave comments and questions below. I respond to every one! (And if for some reason you don’t hear back from me, it might be your message got lost in Spamland by accident! Try me again!)

Hi Camilla! If you want to research further into Italy’s laws regarding skills contests and what you are legally allowed to do and what Italian laws protect you, then that would be great. From what I remember from my research on internet (international) contests was that Italy’s laws require extra hoops for me to jump through, of which I either don’t have time or money to tackle. It’s terribly disappointing for me. I did not realize how restrictive laws were concerning contests on the internet, but the laws of each country do remain in effect, and I have neither the knowledge nor know-how to meet every country’s requirements. In the future I am considering just opening up submissions for review for an anthology that does not also include a contest. The anthology would be treated much the same, where submissions would need to fit the theme, and I would review each to make sure it fits appropriately with the content. Then that anthology’s profits would also go to a charity like Compassion International. Is that something you’d be interested in submitting to in the future?

I must begin brainstorming ideas now!
One quick question: If a story is chosen and put in the anthology, can the author later on publish that same story on their blog or in a collection of their own short stories?

Reblogged this on Audrey Driscoll's Blog and commented:
This contest looked exciting back in November, and now that the details have been worked out, it’s even more so! And I seem to remember saying “I’m in” back then, so I’d better fire up the old imagination engine.

Firstly just had to reblog this Rachael, such a challenge and lots of clear information on the ‘rules & regulations’ (vital for me).
Secondly, I can’t resist that cover, will have to give this a try.
All the best
Roger

I’ve an idea linked to my own ‘fantasy lands’, which make work….
btw: If you did buy a kindle copy of my book, sorry about typos, spellings etc, I’ve placed a neater 2nd Edition now, which will be free for a few days.

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Rachael Ritchey is a dreamer who believes in the resilience of the human spirit. She never wants to forget we are not what has happened to us or what we've done. She believes we are deep wells of compassion and strength, and when unleashed, these subtle super powers can change the world, even if only just one person at a time.
Rachael writes with an eye toward exemplifying these attributes. Her clean but real and true-to-self YA fiction reflects these qualities with daring adventure and sweet romance that almost anyone can enjoy. Rachael lives in Spokane, WA with her husband, kids, and their dog named Hashtag.